My Trails into the Past

Yesterday I was searching through the probate records on FamilySearch.org . I knew that Thomas Haley probably died between 1850 and 1860. He was last seen in Rankin Co, Mississippi in the 1850 US Federal census. [1] There he was enumerated as a 61 year-old farmer with his wife, Elizabeth who was 58 years old and two sons, Thomas, 27 and John, 17. Being 61 would make his birth year somewhere around 1789. The census showed he was born in North Carolina and Elizabeth, his wife was born in South Carolina, while the two sons were born in Mississippi. Why am I interested in this couple? They are my 4th great grandparents on my maternal grandfather’s side. Thomas Haley’s daughter, Amanda married Benjamin W Jones. Their daughter, Olivia Jane married Rubin M. Johnston. Their son, Thomas N. Johnston married Nell L. Hutson. These were my grandfather’s parents. The first probate file I found on Thomas Haley was the petition for administration, filed by son, Thomas J. Haley. [2] Thomas gave...

  Our mission this week, was to: 1) The year one of my great-grandmothers was born and divide this number by 125. After rounding off to a whole number, I found my "roulette number." My husband’s great grandmother, Matilda Louise Erickson was born 1871. Dividing by 125, I got 14.968 which I rounded up to 15. 2) I found the Ahnentafel number corresponding to the “roulette number” in my RootsMagic database and that person was Matilda Louise Ericksson! 3) Tell three to five facts about that person in my ancestral name list with the "roulette number." Mathilda Lovisa Ericksson (1871-1942) Mathilda Lovisa Ericksson was 21 December 1871 in Tidersrum, Östergötland län, Sweden to Karl Johan Ericksson and Stina Maja Samuelsdotter. [1] She and her sister immigrated to the United States in 1888 and settled in Montgomery County, Iowa. [2] Mathilda married Pehr Alfred Lundquist on 15 March 1892 in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa. [3] Together they had three children: J...

Randy Seaver, of Genea-Musings, has a wonder fun activity on Saturday called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. This week his mission for us is: 1)   Make a map using the National Atlas map at ( http://nationalatlas.gov/streamer/Streamer/streamer.html ) showing the downstream course of a river that one of your ancestors may have traveled on.  What does it tell you?  What did you learn?  Did they live at other places on that river, or downstream of that river?  2)   Tell us about it in a blog post of your own (please show us the map you created - use an image snipping tool or take a screen shot), or make a comment here on this post, or write a Facebook status or a Google+ stream post. My husband’s ancestor, Amos Gorrell, kept diaries and described their trip from Chillicothe, Ohio to their new home in Tipton, Missouri in 1866. Here is Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. Even though it is near the Scioto River, Amos and his wife, Catherine, travele...

  Mary Martha Douras was my first cousin, three times removed. She was born 18 Jul 1868 in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada to James Douras and Honora Gleeson. [1]   Honora Gleeson was the daughter of Martin Gleeson and Ann Gleeson, Irish immigrants who traveled to Upper Canada in the mid 1820’s. [2]   Mary Martha was the fourth child of James and Honora Gleeson. The family attended St. Phillips Catholic Church in Richmond and Mary Martha was baptized there. Mary Martha Gleeson married Henry Thomas McCarthy on 16 Feb 1909. [3] This was Henry’s second marriage. His first wife, Anne Therese had died in 1906. Henry and Mary Martha had two children, Catherine Mary McCarthy and James Vincent McCarthy, added to the three children he had with Anne: Norbert F McCarthy, John L. McCarthy, and Newman S. McCarthy. Mary Martha died 22 Dec 1947 at the age of 79 years. [4] There is a photo of Mary Martha Gleeson in the Kilroe Family Tree on Ancestry.com: http://trees.ance...

Last week I wrote about finding Philippena’s Voehringer family through some newspaper research I had done using the Louisville Courier-Journal on ProQuest.com site. You can read about it here .   In that story, I found a newspaper article where May Agnes Haebe, Philippena’s sister, filed in court contesting the will. [1] What was so nice about the article was that Mary listed all of her living brother and sisters by name in the suit: “ her sisters, Mrs. Barbra Kilgus, Mrs. Rosina Noelling, Mrs. Philipine Woolenweaver, and her brother, Jacob Vohringer. ” Mary Agnes Haebe felt that her mother could not have written the will.   I had written that I should next search for Mary Agnes Voehinger’s will and saw that FamilySearch has Kentucky Probate records online. They are not indexed but are browsable. Luckily they are listed by county. In Jefferson County, there are only will records from 1784 to 1901. Since her will would have been filed sometime after her death in Dec 1898, ...

It all started with a newspaper article in the Courier-Journal , a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky. I was searching this newspaper in the ProQuest.com newspaper site that the attendees at IGHR at Samford University had access to.  There was a newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky and I had Wollenweber ancestors in Louisville. So in my search I found an article about real estate transactions. Philippine Wollenweber, a widow, was selling her interest in the estate of Fred Vohringer to Rosina Noking. [1] Well, light bulbs went off in my head! Voehringer was Philippine’s maiden name. I knew this from her marriage record to Ludwig W. Wollenweber. [2] Selling an interest in an estate meant she had some connection to this Fred. Vohringer. And could Voehringer and Vohringer be the same name? The complete transaction as printed in the newspaper went like this:   “Philippine Wollenweber, widow, to Rosina Noking, interest in estate of Fred. Vohringer, deceased, and being one-half...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has challenged us to find where our ancestors were living on 1 Jun 1863.  This was very challenging but lots of fun.  I found that I need to do land research to learn more about exactly where my ancestors were living!  I have no photos of their residences.  Here are my father's side of the family: My second great-grandmother, Maria Catharine (Trösster) Hork (1813-1874) was living in Oberhundem, Westfalen (present day Germany).  I do not have a photograph of their residence, nor do I know exactly which house it is.  I would love to visit the small community someday.  My great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork (1843-1906) was part of this household, as he had not left for America yet. My second great-grandparents, Vincent (1823-1890) and Susanna (Raduntz) Sievert (1832-1911) were living in Joliet, Will County, Illinois.  I do not know where their residence is located, although in later years they lived on Hicko...